U.S. Supreme Court to hear Alabama voting rights challenge

1:35 AM,
Nov. 10, 2012

On Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a ceremony in the President's Room near the Senate Chambers on Capitol Hill in Washington. Surrounding the president from left directly above his right hand, Vice President Hubert Humphrey; House Speaker John McCormack; Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y.; first daughter Luci Johnson; and Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill. Behind Humphrey is House Majority Leader Carl Albert of Oklahoma; and behind Celler is Sen. Carl Hayden, D-Ariz.

Written by

Mary Orndorff Troyan
mtroyan@usatoday.com

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a challenge to the 47-year-old law that gives the federal government extra oversight of elections in parts of the country with a history of discrimination against minority voters.

By accepting the case from an Alabama county, the justices will decide whether the portion of the Voting Rights Act credited with transforming the South's political and cultural landscape has outlived its usefulness.

It is likely to be one of the more controversial cases on the court's docket, involving questions of racism, politics and state sovereignty. ...